East York / Toronto / Canada
12 August 2010
My name is Anthony (Tony) Whittingham. These days, I use the pen-name "yyz416" in the work I share in the public forum...
Today is the 1st day of Ramadan, the 40-day 'purification' discipline for Muslim believers expressed through fasting (total abstinence from food or drink) during the hours between sunrise and sunset. This is especially difficult during the "summer months" across the Northern Hemisphere, as "daylight hours" still extend to more than 15 hours. By constrast, as the dates of Ramadan 'migrate' annually according to the Islamic Lunar Calendar, the fasting hours during the northern "winter" are reduced to about 6 hours per day! (... however, it will take until about 2020 until; Ramadan occurs in December, as the lunar cycle moves "backwards" at the rate of about 10 days per solar year).
I am presently living in Thorncliffe Park, a heavily Musilm neighborhood in northeast central Toronto...so this is the daily life experience of my neighbors, shopkeepers -- even a few burgeoning friends...
Perhaps more to follow on this experience as Ramadam 1411H continues -- ending with the "climax" of Eid-el-Fitri on September 5.
MEANWHILE...to introduce myself -- and to justify my desire to "speak out" through a public blog, let me say that my present greatest motivation comes through is capturing "moments of life" through PHOTOGRAPHY.
I expect, therefore to use this space primarily to post photographs.
I am beginnning with a very large photoset -- more than 400 photos-- in a "set" assembled for that great site, FLICKr.
This set -- "Wren's Monnument: The City Churches of London (England)" depicts a religious tradition of quite a different color.
If you might be interested in the Christian tradition of LENT -- a comparable period to Ramadan (of reflection and self-betterment) in the 40 days leading up to Easter, this year in March 2010), join me by clicking to the FLICKr link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yyz416/sets/72157624100193276/
